Chapter 4 Shiloh #2
“This is Warden Tenn,” Tasha said, moving to his side. My eyebrows rose, unfortunately causing a spike of pain and sparkles of white and red to dance briefly across my vision, when he looped what appeared to be a rope-like purple tail around her waist.
“I’m also her husband,” he said, his smile taking on a proud, smirking quality.
“You…” God, this was too much for my brain right now. “You’re married? You’re in the program?”
“So, I’m actually the facilitator of the program. I’m the human-Zabrian liaison. I’m the one who put together that information packet you downloaded from the calendar’s code. I met this one during the course of my duties here and, well, the rest is history.”
She patted Warden Tenn on his barrel-like chest and beamed.
“I am so excited the calendars are working! I thought it was a bit of a gamble, sending a few hard copies and digital download codes to the factory. I had a feeling the higher ups wouldn’t like it, since I was basically trying to lure good workers away.
But the fact you’re here means it’s obviously working! ”
“I…I guess you could say that,” I mumbled.
I mean, the fact I was here was really because of a dandy combination of capitalism and sexual harassment, two dirty twin boots kicking my butt right out of New Toronto.
But she was at least partly right. It was the calendar that had inspired me. That had given me an out.
That had shown me that sky.
“Was there one guy in particular who caught your eye? Obviously, you have to meet them all!” Tasha said. “This isn’t some meat market where we’re picking people out of a line up! But was there anyone in particular you hoped to meet?”
“Pardon?”
“Most of the men in the calendar were already married – they had those little tiny pictures at the bottom with their wives. But the other guys – Xennet and Dorn and Rivven – they’re all single. And they are all so excited about the program!”
“They…They are?”
I hadn’t even looked at the single men in the calendar photos.
They’d been nothing more to me than a casual flip of pages through Bhavi and Mary’s fingers.
The only one I really noticed or remembered was the golden man that Cherry had married, because that was the page that had been displayed the longest.
For the first time since I’d made my choice to come here, I felt the nauseating niggle of doubt. I had barely put any thought into the marriage aspect of things. For some reason, I’d assumed the men would be the same.
Why the hell had I assumed the men would be the same?
Was I using this world, this program?
Was I using them?
The thought that these Zabrian males were actually looking forward to meeting me, desperately hoping that I might choose one of them as a romantic partner, made me feel bad.
Mentally bad. Emotionally bad.
Physically very fucking bad.
“I’m so sorry,” I blurted, my right hand rising shakily to cover my eyes. “I have such a bad migraine right now. I can’t…”
I swallowed bile and swayed.
“Let’s get her inside,” said the warden, his voice efficient and authoritative. A small arm linked through my left one – Tasha’s. She said a few words of thanks to Jo, and Warden Tenn said, “I’ve got the bag.”
Even though my eyes were shut, I kept my hand over them as Tasha gently led me from the shuttle. Even the small amount of light passing through my eyelids required extra blocking out.
“Stairs here,” Tasha murmured at my side, guiding me up a couple of steps. There was the creak of a door opening, then the click of it closing behind us.
“Hi, Rivven,” Tasha said. “This is Shiloh. She’s not feeling well right now. Do you have somewhere she could lie down?”
“Take my bed,” said a new, deep voice at once. I tried to crack my eyes open to see who it was, but immediately regretted it and closed them again. We were inside a building, but light blazed in through the windows.
“The bedding’s clean,” the new voice added quickly.
Even in my current state, I decided that I liked this voice. It was gruff and masculine, but I thought I detected a hint of awkward sheepishness in the comment about the cleanliness of the bedding. Like he was worried about me judging his sheets. Cute.
And that voice was offering me somewhere to lie down, with fresh blankies to boot. Sounded like a miracle right about now.
“Thank you,” I managed weakly, aware that I was taking somebody’s bed. At least it wasn’t night time here. Hopefully its owner – Rivven? – wouldn’t need to use it anytime soon.
“Of course,” he said, a soft rasp from very near to me, on my right. Then, he spoke a little louder, from ahead. “This way. Through the kitchen.”
Another door. Another set of stairs – many more of them this time, leading me to a second floor.
One more door.
And a bed. A merciful, wonderful bed.
I didn’t notice anything else about the room besides the fact that it also had a window, which meant I couldn’t keep my eyes open for long.
“We need to cover that up,” said Tasha, still holding my arm and supporting me. “Have you got an opaque tarp, or another blanket, Rivven? Something to block out the light.”
Tasha released my arm then, taking my jacket when I shucked it off.
I gingerly nudged my feet out of my boots.
I would have liked to have removed my pants and bra, but I doubted I had the energy for that right now.
And I still wasn’t even sure how many people were in the room with me.
There were at least two Zabrian men present, I was fairly certain about that. So I kept all my clothes on for now.
Tasha pulled back the soft covers, and I kneeled on the mattress before carefully manoeuvring my body into a horizontal position. My head felt heavy and swollen when I laid it down upon the pillow. I was about to pull the blankets up and over my face when everything went blissfully dark.
“Thank you,” I said again, barely able to whisper it now. I hoped whoever had covered the window heard it. I really meant it.
“Do you need anything else?” Tasha asked. “We’ll make sure there’s water on the bedside table for you.”
My stomach roiled.
“Maybe a bucket,” I groaned.
The last thing I heard before they all left the room was that deep voice I liked saying, “Got plenty of buckets. She can have her pick.”